Good day, everyone. I ask you read all of this carefully and thoroughly. I'll try to be as direct as I can. I'm using, currently, an HP Compaq desktop with a duo-core processor, 2 GBs of RAM, Windows 7 Professional and a 64-bit system. About a week and a half ago, I received this computer back from technicians (I was using another computer while this was in the technician's place). I had this computer, the HQ Compaq, wiped clean and the operating system re-installed because of a suspected virus. About 5 days ago, I re-connected this computer, which had been wiped and the O.S. re-installed, and one of the first things I did was download Avast! Free Antivirus 2015 and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I was told that the free version of Malwarebytes should not conflict with the free version of Avast!
Since I downloaded and installed the free version of Avast! (about 5 days ago), along with Malwarebytes, I've run a complete and full scan with both programs daily, and the scans come back clean each time. I do not visit any "suspicious websites". In fact, the only websites I've visited apart from Facebook, Google, You Tube and Yahoo was the Washington Post website and Netflix, both of which are labeled safe by the Avast! online security extension for Google Chrome. I had no problems while using those sites, and I do not click links from those sites which lead elsewhere or on advertisements. My general point here is that I don't surf porn and strange gaming websites which usually prove to be malicious in some way. The only non-default programs I have, besides Avast! AV and Malwarebytes, are pretty much just Skype and Google Chrome. I do not download any games, click any links to other sites while on Facebook or Yahoo, and I don't communicate with anyone I don't know. I don't open strange or unfamiliar e-mails, either.
So, to recap, I try to practice good browsing and I scan my computer daily, and I just had this computer wiped and the O.S. re-installed shortly ago, and Avast! and Malwarebytes (I have the free version of Malwarebytes, so there shouldn't be any real-time protection conflicts between the two) have found nothing every day I scan. I've also had no problems with the computer in general which would necessarily indicate a viral or malware problem.
So, here's my problem below:
So, tonight, I was on a Skype call with my girlfriend, talking to one of her sons, and I hovered my mouse over the Avast! icon on my taskbar. Usually, a little green box will appear which says "You are protected!", but that didn't happen. The icon also wasn't animated as it usually was. So, I clicked the Avast! icon, and nothing happened. I tried opening Avast! from the shortcut icon on my desktop, and nothing happened. It was like it was completely unresponsive. Malwarebytes would open, but Avast! wouldn't. I checked the task manager, and the Avast! process was running. I have since run a full scan with Malwarebytes and it finds nothing.
I called Avast! support about this problem. They told me to uninstall and re-install, and it appears to have resolved the issue, but what may have caused this and how can I prevent it from happening again? Thanks in advance!
